That is the subtitle, the title is The Club No One Wanted to Join and the editor is Erin Arvedlund and the compiler is Alexandra Roth. Here are a few excerpts:
You are an evil predator…The Bible says that as Christ hung on the cross He cried out to God, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." I do not forgive you. You and your family knew exactly what you were doing. You will face God soon, and he will hold you accountable for your sins.
And another:
I no longer hate you. You are no longer the Monster that terrifies my dreams and fills my nightmares, because now I have courage and strength, and I have taken back control of my life.
This ordeal has allowed me to grow. It has allowed me to be a better friend, a better daughter, a better sister, and better me.
And for that I say, thank you!
And another:
P.S. I have been spelling your name in low caps for a while now, simply because you are a low life.
And:
I never met you, yet you had more influence and control over my life than I ever did.
Don’t these people understand that financial regulation takes away their freedom and creates regulatory uncertainty which is responsible for the inability of businesses to come out of this recession.
Financial regulation takes away your freedom from being ripped off by Bernie Maddoff.
What about the fact that these people were idiots to trust him with their money? You can’t swindle an honest man, you know!
Hard to feel sorry for people who did not properly spread their risk around. Sort of like the Enron employees who had everything in Enron stock. Funny, you would think that Madoff’s “customers” would be a little more “sophisticated” in handling their money.
For a good chuckle, go to 7:30 on this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ATqDVIxqA
Yes, Bill. Garbage in, garbage out. We clearly just need to feed in more garbage.
Nancy,
When one does everything possible to sidestep every protection that was put in place, they shouldn’t expect sympathy when something goes wrong. If they wanted security, there are lots of unlevered high grade corporate and government bond funds that have a 0% rate of being ponzi schemes. The raison d’etre of a hedgefund is to remove the constraints placed on a manager by the usual investor protections of a mutual fund.
Running your house on an extention cord from your neighbor’s house has a high expected value, but I’m not going to feel to bad about the guy who’s house burns down.
“This ordeal has allowed me to grow. It has allowed me to be a better friend, a better daughter, a better sister, and better me.” Am I alone in finding this puke-provoking?
Some of the swindled may have been idiots, but there sure was a lot of collateral damage.
What’s the best article you’ve read that explains exactly how Bernie Madoff was able to swindle so many for so long?
A Napoleon can’t micromanage. Post on my Wall Tyler, I want it to be a lively discussion between the Future Econ Czars, Theological Czars, it’s, we’ll discuss Keynes and Hayek, etc. I trust you opinion on these issues. You’ve demonstrated your excellent wit time and time again, your authenticity and dice-rolling, your taste in music. You are an aristocrat of the soul. And you have stayed authentic to your choices.
“Sophisticated Investors” has always meant, “has tons of money to invest”. It has nothing to do with intelligence.
I don’t find the puke provoking comment to be puke provoking.
Sometimes people overvalue the positive role money plays in their lives, but don’t realize that until they lose money and successfully adjust to having less wealth.
This doesn’t justify cheating or stealing. But its possible for someone to suffer a loss in wealth and wind up happier.
“Sophisticated Investors” has always meant, “has tons of money to invest”. It has nothing to do with intelligence.
Correct. Isn’t the right phrase “qualified investor,” which essentially means “rich?”
It’s annoying how ready everyone is to generalize about Madoff’s victims. Were they all greedy fools who should have known better? Were they all just innocents caught in a master swindler’s trap? The answer to both questions is obviously, “no.”
Some no doubt should and could have known better. Worse, some probably suspected Madoff was up to something illegal: front-running or other insider trading of some sort, but were happy to close their eyes, follow a DADT policy, and take the money. Others were duped.
Look, the guy was some kind of big name on Wall Street. He had a track record extending over years. Not everyone who has a lot of money is financially knowledgeable. Imagine you’ve built some sort of company, sold it for a nice price, and retired. You’re looking for an investment and a friend touts you onto Madoff. He’s unspectacular but consistent, and has been for some time. He’s a big wheel, not some fly-by-night operator. It’s easy to fall for it.
I agree with Nancy Lebovitz. Nobody’s perfect and everyone makes mistakes, sometimes big ones. We’re human. The “tough s**t, it was their own fault for being stupid,” tone is truly obnoxious, and ridiculously smug.
Anyone who doesn’t believe in regulation has the freedom to invest in unregulated markets abroad. I doubt you would choose to do so, but go ahead. Go for it. Put your money where your mouth is.
What is truly amazing is that development and institutional economists push the developing world to create the rule of law, lecture them that they need securities or other regulatory systems in order for developed economies to invest in their country, or encourage them to list on US exchanges if they wish to attain credibility because of regulatory oversight.
Those fools. They didn’t realize that people would rush to their shores because they didn’t regulate.
“Anyone who doesn’t believe in regulation has the freedom to invest in unregulated markets abroad. I doubt you would choose to do so, but go ahead. Go for it. Put your money where your mouth is.”
Bill,
The regulations here are not the only pertinent aspect to investing here. The regulations did not create the market.
You are making a finance argument equivalent to saying “people are free to leave their families here and go find new families abroad.”
@Bill have you ever bought pot. You could say that the market for pot is completely unregulated as it is all illegal. Off course you could say that the market for pot is totally regulated to the max in that pot is illegal. Either way regulation does not come out looking good.
I have sympathy for the victims but I do not know what can be done about the problem except punishing the preps when they are caught. It was a crime and we have lots of crimes that cannot be prevented. To a certain extent regulation punishes crimes before they are caught in that puts a burden on everyone and I like innocent until proven guilty (although I do support some regulations).
Also the victims need to bear some of the cost to keep them working on there own behalf against crime.
BTW one problem IMO is the wide spread believe that greater than 10% annual growth is achievable.
Yeah, you can feel sorry for these folks but not obligated to them. And I don’t think anyone has suggested that we are obligated (aside from some early noise from the investors themselves, I haven’t heard any serious talk about bailing out any of them). But sure, it should be pointed out that they were stepping outside of the normal process for consumer protection here and that can serve as a cautionary tale. We don’t have to be mean about it.
Most dollars that Madoff stole were from qualified investors. Most people that Madoff stole from were not qualified and didn’t know that their money was with him. The book is about the second group because they are more sympathetic.
Please tell me how Madoff is any different than the guys who run Social Security.
For one thing, “the guys who run Social Security” won’t end up in jail.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Does anyone else think that that last quote is terribly sad? Even if I lost all my money as the result of another’s actions, as long as I still retained enough of a brain to write I don’t think I would feel so helpless.
I invested through a feeder fund, Tremont Partners, a subsidiary of Oppenheimer and Co., which is owned by the NY stock exchange listed cmpany Mass. Mutual Insurance. Tremont’s auditors were KPMG and I received statements that presented the monthly the value of the assets in my account from the Bank of New York Mellon. My returns from the time of my initial investment in 2004 to Madoff’s arrest in 2008 varied between 6 and 9 percent. Exactly where were the red flags?
I never have any sympathy for resentment.
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